Four Amish Children die when their family's buggy falls into a rain-swollen creek in Kentucky

The ravished buggy of an Amish family is seen in a field along Roscoe Creek, Feb. 25, 2011, near Dublin, Ky. Four children died late Thursday when the horse-drawn buggy carrying the family toppled in the rain-swollen creek. The family of nine was on the way home after making a phone call.

NBC, msnbc.com and news servicesMAYFIELD, Ky. -- A woman and eight children were attempting to cross Roscoe Creek in a downpour in the dark Thursday when the accident happened. Officials say the family may not have realized the creek had risen. The woman and four children made it to safety, rescuers said.

The accident happened as severe storms pummeled the nation's midsection and southeast , leaving behind a trail of downed trees and splintered power lines. Torrential rains drenched parts of Kentucky and other states Thursday night.

“We were hoping and praying for this to have a different outcome. But the story has a very tragic end,” Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon told The Paducah Sun.

Sheriff Dewayne Redmon talks with the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore about finding the fourth child of an Amish family who was found dead after floodwaters swept away the family's buggy.